Vanth
Vanth is a planet located in the medieval rim of the 65th quadrant of the Milky Way galaxy. Virtually all humanoid races and creatures are found on Vanth. __TOC__ Places God City The former Vulkin trading port for Vanth. When the navigation grid for the local sector crashed eleven years ago, “millions” of interstellar travelers were stranded here. Eventually, when supplies began to run out, the survivos were forced to leave its confines to seek their fortunes. Icy Lake of Hori These bone-chilling waters form a barrier to those who would approach God City from the southeast. Here dwell the Floemen, blue men who charge exorbitant fees to ferry travelers and their wares across the lake in craft carved from huge chunks of ice. Those who wish to avoid the highwaymen of the Great West Road must deal with the Floemen, or brave the dangers of the mountains to the north. But someone claims that the Floemen’s doom is nigh, thanks to secrets found in the bottomless depths of the lake itself. Are these the ravings of a madman, or does hidden power lurk beneath the realm of the Ice Boats of Hori? North Mountains The impenetrable mountains to the north of the realm of Vanth. From west to east are located God City, the Fissures of Death, Castle Crane, Castle Noth, the Iron Dwarf King’s realm, Angel Barrows, Hoarfrost Citadel, and the Pass of Death. Castle Noth When God City was a thriving spaceport and God-Emperor Vafthergrint the Butcher of Eels sat fast upon the Golden Throne, Castle Noth was a wealthy bastion thriving on the trade between the Vulkin trading post and the City of Blackhawk. Now that the ruler upon the Golden Throne changes more often than some people change their underwear, evil times have befallen the lands where ale and gold once flowed freely. No longer protected by the brutally effective Terminator Troops, the trade routes over the Purple Sludge surrounding Castle Noth become more and more dangerous to cross. Castle Crane Known for the huge mechanical devices that dropped boulders upon besieging armies in ages past, agents of Castle Crane’s aging, heirless ruler, Prince Parchmort, slink forth on some mysterious quest. Is he bent on resurrecting past glories, or creating new ones? Fissures of Death Old Vanthian lore claim that these cracks into hell were closed up by heroes ages ago, but that Vulkin blundering reopened them. The Vulkins claim that the cracks were opened by groundquakes decades before they established God City. They deny the claims that awful monsters have been coming forth in greater numbers since the sector navigation grid went down, but why are sending more and more troops into these mountainous regions lately? Hoarfrost Citadel A centuries-old kingdom, with the hoard of a thousand conquests, is frozen beneath this blue-white glacier, a curse from the gods for its past atrocities. Now, however, the slow flow of the ice-river is uncovering thing that many would rather remain entombed. Has the power of the gods failed, unleashing the frozen dead of Hoarfrost, or has something else dared meddle in the domain of the damned? Iron Dwarf King’s Realm TODO The Pass of Death This ancient roadway is, to many, synonymous with “a foolish, agonizing death”. Said to be built by gods, giants, or dragons in eons past, the kingdoms of the North Mountains are ever vigilant for threats from the East (such as Darth Viraxis, the Zombie Princess, and the Klengon Colonies). Some say that it should be destroyed to block the path of invasion; others say that it could just as well be used to invade the realms of evil. What to the strange, abominable carvings along the walls of the pass mean? Are they a warning from the long-extinct creators, or a potent weapon waiting to be unleashed? Angel Barrows When the Vulkins still claimed to be “angels” and “messengers of the gods”, they dared venture onto the sacred grounds of a backward, warlike tribe. The trading expedition was slaughtered to the last individual, their caravan’s goods lost and cursed. Other Vulkins sealed off the entire region with a phasic barrier to preserve the secret of their true identities, leaving the tribe to perish on its sacred ground. After so many centuries, the force field still stands. What remains of the lost Vulkin treasures? Has the tribal holy ground retained its sanctity, or has the blood of natives and aliens tainted it beyond redemption? City of Thunders TODO Isle of Blacksteel TODO Slaver Kingdoms TODO Sea of Great Peril TODO Empire of Darth Viraxis TODO Holdings of the Zombie Princess TODO Klengon Colonies TODO Bleak Mountains TODO Goblin Hills TODO Wonderlands Wandering tribes of Funfair Nomads - carnies, mutants and clowns - locked in an eternal cycle of alliances and deadly feuds for the dwindling supplies of fuel and marks (customers/victims) of the desolate boondocks known as Wonderlands. Their stock in trade is entertainment, of the “win-or-die” variety… and, since the games are invariably crooked, they’re more like “win-AND-die”. The Unknown Highway TODO Forbidden Waste TODO Amazon and Wooky Freeholds TODO Ape Sultans TODO Steel Warlords This region was sparsely populated coastal region before the sector navigation grid went silent. However, in just over a decade, the land has become a hotbed of industrial activity. Though living creatures have quickly disappeared from this area, streams of cyaborgs and robodroids march forth from the assembly lines to take their place. Automated fortresses ring the perimeter, while cyaborg tank units patrol for any living thing that dares intrude upon the realm of the Steel Warlords. The Amazon and Wookie Freeholds and the Ape Sultans are casting wary eyes upon their neighbor, dreading the advance of phasic might upon their jungle strongholds. Hidden Caves Tales are told of a lost underground civilization, crypts stuffed with jewels and gold, diamonds the size of oxcarts (including the ox), and other treasures enough to drive a dwarf mad with greed. How anybody ever saw them in the first place is a mystery, for everyone freely admits that nobody has ever found the location of the Hidden Caves. Many have tried, much to their regret; even stoic Vulkin treasure-seekers have wept openly with frustration over this paradox. Major Mace Mattock, foul-mouthed Space Hero extraordinaire, says he has a foolproof scheme to solve this enigma at last - and he’s recruiting fools at top dollar to foolprove it! Shunned Towns Among the many popular travel destinations of Vanth, the Shunned Towns are not among them. No outsider has visited them since before the Vulkins came to this world (and every wag claims a different reason for the enshunmant). Who would dare to break the age-old decree? Who would risk unknown censures, anonymous maledictions, and long-forgotten whammies to learn the potentially wallet-breaking truth of these towns’ dark secret—at no guarantee of life, limb, or dramatic purpose? Dino Island For the ultimate in big-game hunting, there’s no place like Dino Island. This is every hunter’s caveman fantasy on steroids—powerful, kill-you-dead illegal steroids. In fact, there are so many specimens of prehistoric megafauna and their phasically-charged kin that had the decency to go extinct on more civilizaed worlds, that the biggest mystery of all is the nature of the food source that keeps them all alive. (When questioned about this, a noted and notorious big-game hunter to quip, “They take turns eating each other.”) There are many other mysteries there, however, such as the ancient, bejeweled ruins buried beneath the enormous roots and creepers of the deadly jungle that grips the island in its fetid green tendrils; who could have carved out a civilization in such a lethal environment? And what treasures did such a hardy folk leave behind? City of Bloodhaven Originally a haven for the Pirates of the Sea of Great Peril, Bloodhaven is the nexus for trade across the southern part of Vanth, where everything can be found — services as well as goods — for a steep price. Seven Mile Pillars of Paragorn TODO City of Blackhawk The Zircon of the Mercenary Coast, Blackhawk’s history is writtenin its frenzy of architecture. Dozens of madmen, monarchs, and revolutionaries have tried to overwrite the legacies of their predecessors, burying whole layers of the city beneath newer, loftier structures. A large portion of the city’s economy derives from exploitation of the endless layers of the buried city by the convoluted, chaotic bureaucracy of guilds, temples, and brotherhoods that dominate city politics. Complicating matters is that the endless catacombs are still inhabited by creatures eager to protect their subterranean domain. Fortune favors the bold in Blackhawk… but even the beggars are bold in this city of dungeons! Limb Traders There is one universal truth about war on Vanth and everywhere else in the Galaxy: warriors shed their vital fluids for their cause; some die, some do not, but many of them leave big, steaming chunks of themselves on the battlefield. And many are forced by necessity to deal with the Limb Traders. Human, RoboDroid, Wookie, Lizardman, none are turned away as long as no questions are asked. However, some are asking those questions, and they don’t like the answers they are getting. Is the age-old Limb Trading monopoly under attack from competitors? And which side of the conflict is it more important to be on? Great Spineywood TODO The Silent Glade TODO Deadly South Mountains TODO Unmapped South TODO Horse Tamers A race of intellectual horses, who train, herd, and sell a race of bestial humans. Salty Bay TODO Waepeta Sorcerer Palisade The grim fortification that broods above the landscape is the least of this eldritch fortress’ defenses, for within this dark domain dwells the enigmatic Sorcerer. For decades, the only visitors to his vast, ruined pile have been at his whim and under his power. Some say that it was he who engineered the destruction of this sector’s navigation grid to seal off Vanth for his own purposes. Is he the the calculating master of every Vanthian’s fate, as some claim? Or is he a pitiful little man, hiding behind a crumbling facade of phantasm? Eavestrough Faerie Haven It’s been called the last refuge of the Faerie Folk, but something is not right in the land of the Wee Folk. Those who venture within bring back tales of foot-long brambles, rapacious will-o-the-wisps, and shrieking, alien haunts; many wayfarers do not return at all! King Pinkbottom Bellywiggle has withdrawn all diplomatic contact from neighboring realms, and rumors of a massive buildup of boggarts, hobgoblins, trows, redcaps, and other unseely types has been observed (often by travelers who have since had their eyes poked out by elf-darts). Has the Faerie King fallen prey to evil forces, or is the presence of aliens and their technology to blame for the Twilight of the Faeries? Realm of the Hobling Emperor TODO Great West Road TODO Phasic Swamp Long used as a dumping ground for malfunctioning alien technology and phasic toxins, the Phasic Swamp has an even more ancient history as a sacrificial site of the darkest type. Rumored to be a portal to some blasphemous underworld, scores of criminals, princelings, priests, and anonymous wayfarers have met their fate in the tangled, fetid depths of this blighted bog. Since the Vulkins started using the swamp as a phasic waste dump, things have gotten even more interesting; documented rumors of phasic demons, magic-using radioactors, and cannibalistic wardoxy cults of the Mad Computer God. In addition, practically everything that dwells within the swamplands suffers dire mutations — which may actually be an improvement in the lives of the degenerate Swamp Folk who have made this squalid wilderness their home since time immemorial. Plains of Parathax TODO Mercenary Coast True to its name, the Mercenary Coast is indeed the single best place to recruit warriors-for-hire in all of Vanth. Many an adventurer has begun his (or her!) (or its!!) career flocking to the banner of a company of sellswords. Every type of combat is represented here, from arbalest and blunderbuss, to bonespears and eon blades, and everything in between. Surprisingly, there is little violence between the companies of doughty death-merchants, unless they are hired to do so; they follow the Code of the Mercenary, which discourages combat for non-mercantile reasons except for formal duels, tournaments, recreation, and sport. Sulduku Hierophants TODO Hyper-deep Underworld TODO Etymology of the word "Vanth" Though admittedly a topic of minor importance following the collapse of the sector navigation grid, the origin and applicability of the name “Vanth” has recently become a source of much controversy amongst Vanthian scholars. A search through the remains of the God City memory banks has been able to shed little light on the matter; however, one tantalizing communique from the Medieval Rim Cartographicalogical Instritute does pose this very question to the leader of the first Vulkin expedition to the planet. Etymologist of dubious credentials Effuivius Vox pontificates: The peoples of the current Realm of Vanth (the area on the map) claim that Vanth was the name of the dominant culture in ages long agone, which arose in this very area, and its peoples spread their wise and benevolent rule across the planet. The planet was christened “Vanth” in their honor at a ceremony presided over by the Go-Go Goddess of Xan-Adoo and Huron the Oathsome, God of Being a Very Mighty God. Vanthropologists, however, suspect that the word ‘Vanth’ is actually a corruption of the word “blurtch”, which was the term used by a pre-agricultural culture known as the Kaluba’dung, located 12, 762 kilometers to the west of the current Realm, in the Valley of Gwangi. The term originally applied to the ceremonial dungheaps which were the centers of all tribal life. Though the Kaluba’dung civilization perished from contagion-born diseases after only a few generations, the term was passed along through oral tradition (mostly jokes at the expense of the Kaluba’dung), transformed bit by bit over the millenia, until it assumed its present form and meaning. Notorious philololologian Fasciitis Necrosis opines: My colleague (if I may dignify him by the extremely imprecise usage of the term) has once again proven that his grasp of Vanthian topics is weak and trembling, a sign of his advancing senility and/or depravities. True Vanthropologists (unlike the boozy streetcorner reprobates he prefers to consult) know that the term “Vanth”, as applied to the planet and the Realm, are recent usages that do not predate the coming of the Vulkins. True, the term did originate in the distant past, and was associated with dungheap fertility rituals, and is known in numerous cultures in numerous variant forms. Unfortunately, his derivation from the Kaluna’dung term “blurtch” is wholly erroneous, for this word is specifically associated with unheaped dung. In fact, when the first Vulkin explorers landed on the planet, and made contact with the natives (possibly Hoblings), they were unable to communicate with them, since this predates the days of the Omniversal Translinguatron. Pointing at the nearby village, the Vulkins asked their hosts, over a dinner of roast goatbeast, what the name of the town was. The hoblings assumed that they Vulkins were interested in their unusually large and pungent dungheap and proudly replied, “Vanth!”. The Vulkins erroneously deduced that this was the name of the village itself, but soon encountered it in other cultures, even ones far-removed from the initial site of contact. The leader of the Expedition, Spardox, thus concluded that the name of the entire planet was “Vanth”, and so noted it in his reports. Later, the natives were greatly puzzled and a bit insulted when the ‘Gods’ (Vulkins) started referring to the planet and the initial site of contact (now known as the “Realm of Vanth”) as a “dungheap”. However, when offered nigh-miraculous treasures (such as plastic whistle-rings, surplus Mardi Gras necklaces, and factory-reject Swiss Army knives (with missing toothpicks), for such reasonable prices (enough gold to fill a Type VII Transport), these proto-entrepreneurial folk quickly decided that the Gods could call the place anything they wanted to as long as they kept bringing the goods.Some tribal wag made up the story about the ancient, world-wide civilization of Vanth and the divine christening ceremony in order to impress the tourists. This has resulted in many hastily-contrived native dances, amateur theatricals, and Rotary Club speeches purporting to explain the local community’s place in “The Epic of Vanth”. Commander Spardox succinctly replies: Who cares? Category:Vanth Category:Canon